1:51 PM, January 15, 2013

UAW President Bob King and U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis look over Ford products at the 2013 North American International Auto Show at Cobo Center on Tuesday. / ANDRE J. JACKSON/Detroit Free Press

Detroit Free Press Business Columnist

General Motors plans to make several announcements in the next few weeks about adding shifts and hourly jobs at U.S. plants, company and UAW officials said today.

UAW President Bob King, while touring the North American International Auto Show floor this morning, said he expects GM will soon surpass 20,000 jobs added since the bankruptcy restructuring of 2009.

Noting that Joe Ashton, vice president in charge of the union’s GM department, spoke Monday to the company’s board of directors, and King said Ashton "expects some more announcements very shortly."

A GM spokesman said the automaker has thus far added 18,000 hourly jobs since the bankruptcy, and confirmed that it’s looking to add capacity and shifts as it rolls out a wave of new product launches this year and next. Neither company nor UAW officials would reveal specifics of what plants will be next to get new work, or how many jobs will be added at each.

King and Ashton toured the auto show floor with U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, who recently announced she will be stepping aside for President Barack Obama’s second term.

Solis sat in several GM, Ford and Chrysler cars during the tour, including an electric Ford Focus and a Chevrolet Sonic, the subcompact successor to a car formerly made in Korea but now assembled in Orion Township.

"After a rough ride, now jobs are coming back," Solis said of the auto industry’s revival in Michigan.

Solis and King both said they had not been asked for their input on a possible successor for Solis in Obama’s cabinet. King said he had seen speculative news reporters citing former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and several other prospects for Labor and other open cabinet spots including secretary of energy.

Granholm would be a "wonderful" choice for labor secretary, King said, adding, “She deserves a lot of the credit for the comeback in Michigan. She worked so closely with GM, Ford, Chrysler and the UAW together.” Other names appearing as possible prospects in news reports about the open cabinet post have included former U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton of Ohio, who lost a reelection bid in November, and Mary Beth Maxwell, a senior adviser in the Labor Department who was on the short list for the position in 2009.

Granholm’s name is also mentioned as a prospect to replace outgoing Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu.

Asked about the possible impact of Michigan’s new right-to-work law on relations with Detroit’s automakers, King said, "I’m really focused on continuing to grow General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. We have better labor-management relationships than ever. How crazy is it, when Michigan is finally beginning to come back, and we’re bringing all these jobs back into Michigan, that the governor and legislature do a divisive thing like right-to-work?"